Nangqên County, or Nangchen (, ), is currently a county of the Yushu Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture and is the southernmost county-level division of Qinghai province, China, bordering the Tibet Autonomous Region to the south. Until 1955, the region was known as the Kingdom of Nangchen.Last King of Nangchen, JSTOR It was one of the five kingdoms of the historical region of Do Kham.
The county seat is Sharnda, or Shamda (Tibetan: ཤར་མདའ་, Chinese : 香达, pinyin : Xiangda), built in a side valley and on the right bank of the Dza Chu (upper reaches of the Mekong). In 2000, the county's population amounted to people, inhabiting a surface of .
History The county's name is derived from the former king (nang chen rgyal po) and Kingdom of Nangchen, a tribal confederation that emerged as a unified Buddhist kingdom in the 13th century.Maria Turek, “Return of the Good King: Kingship and Identity among Yushu Tibetans since 1951,” in Frontier Tibet: Patterns of Change in the Sino-Tibetan Borderland, ed. by Stéphane Gros, Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2019, 453-488. The present-day's county comprises the core area of the old kingdom of Nangchen.
Memories of the Kingdom of Nangchen play a role among Tibetan refugees who came to India from the area. Scholar Maria Turek reported that in 2015 she heard about “a man who went to various Tibetan communities in India, introducing himself as ‘the king of Nangchen’ not without some success, even though he had no credentials to prove his claim.”Maria Turek, “Return of the Good King: Kingship and Identity among Yushu Tibetans since 1951,” in Frontier Tibet: Patterns of Change in the Sino-Tibetan Borderland, ed. by Stéphane Gros, Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2019, 453-488 (482).
The last king of Nangchen, Tashi Tsewang, stayed in power in the region after the 1955 official disestablishment of the Kingdom. Between 1956 and 1959, he sent soldiers fighting against communist Chinese in the Kham rebellion, a troubled episode before the 1959 Tibetan uprising. He died during the Cultural revolution.
A Yelpa Kagyu monastery, Tana Monastery (Jang Tana), was founded by Yelpa Yeshe Tsek in 1068. It is considered a branch monastery of Tsurpu."Tana Sengge Nam Dzong" - the Monastery of Ling, in: Andreas Gruschke, The Cultural Monuments of Tibet's Outer Provinces: Kham vol. 2 - The Qinghai Part of Kham (Yushu Autonomous Prefecture), Bangkok 2004, pp.110-115.Tanma Jamyang Tsultrim: "Cultural Relics of the Tana Monastery in Yushu and Gesar", in: Tibet Studies, 1991, No.1, S. 184-190.Tana monastery, (towards) Ji'nyinsib, Qinghai, CN. Mapping Buddhist Monasteries, accessed August 5, 2017.
Culture While most of Qinghai Tibetans are of Amdo culture, Nangchen, and more broadly the Yushu prefecture, is of Kham culture and its people speak Kham dialect.
Most of Tibetan areas are dominated by the Gelug movement (often called yellow-hats) of Tibetan buddhism, but in Nangchen, the Kagyu movement (part of the red-hats) is the majority.
Administrative divisions
Name Simplified Chinese Hanyu Pinyin Tibetan Wylie Administrative division code Town Xangda Town(Xarda, Xiangda) 香达镇 Xiāngdá Zhèn ཤར་མདའ་གྲོང་རྡལ། shar mda' grong rdal 632725100 Townships Zhêca Township(Baizha, Bêca) 白扎乡 Báizhā Xiāng སྤྲེལ་ཚྭ་ཞང་། sprel tshwa zhang 632725200 Jiqu Township 吉曲乡 Jíqǔ Xiāng ལྕི་ཆུ་ཞང་། lci chu zhang 632725201 Nyagla Township(Niangla) 娘拉乡 Niánglā Xiāng ཉག་ར་ཞང་། nyag ra zhang 632725202 Mozhong Township(Maozhuang) 毛庄乡 Máozhuāng Xiāng མོའོ་གྲོང་ཞང་། mo'o grong zhang 632725203 Gyozhag Township(Juela) 觉拉乡 Juélā Xiāng སྐྱོ་བྲག་ཞང་། skyo brag zhang 632725204 Domba Township(Dongba) 东坝乡 Dōngbà Xiāng སྡོམ་པ་ཞང་། sdom pa zhang 632725205 Gaxung Township(Gayang) 尕羊乡 Gǎyáng Xiāng ཀ་གཞུང་ཞང་། ka gzhung zhang 632725206 Ji'nyinsib Township(Jinisai) 吉尼赛乡 Jínísài Xiāng ལྕི་ཉིན་སྲིབ་ཞང་། lci nyin srib zhang 632725207 Zhongxog Township(Zhogxog, Zhuoxiao) 着晓乡 Zhuóxiǎo Xiāng འབྲོང་ཤོག་ཞང་། 'brong shog zhang 632725208
Climate Nangqên has a dry-winter humid continental climate (Köppen Dwb) featuring freezing, clear and dry winters, mild, rainy and cloudier summers, and substantial diurnal temperature variation throughout the year.
Transportation China National Highway 214
References
External links Nangchen historic area Religious life in Nangchen: Photo album